It was again a case of panic. The first man to arrive on the scene did not like going in, and merely called another. More came up, but finding that those already there did not go in, they got a sort of fear of something uncanny, and would not go in themselves, and so let the poor woman drown before their eyes.
Had one Boy Scout been there, there would I hope have been a very different tale to tell. It was just the opportunity for a Boy Scout to distinguish himself. He would have remembered his training.
Do your duty.
Help your fellow-creature, especially if it be a woman.
Don't mind if other people are funking.
Plunge in boldly and look to the object you are trying to attain, and don't bother about your own safety.
Boys have an idea that they are too young and too small to take any but an outside part in saving life. But this is a great mistake. In the Boys' Brigade last year nine boys got the Cross for saving life, eight of them for saving other people from drowning. All aged between 13 and 16.
Cyril Adion (13) and Newlyn Elliott (17) also saved lives from drowning last year, and a small boy only nine years old, David Scannell, was given a silver watch at St. Pancras for saving a child's life at a fire.
In addition to this, a boy named Albert Abraham was recommended for the highest honour that any man can get for saving life, and that is the Albert Medal.
Three boys were climbing up some cliffs from the seashore, when one of them fell to the bottom and was very badly hurt. Another climbed up the rest of the cliff and ran away home, but told nobody for fear of getting into trouble. The third one, Albert Abraham, climbed down again to the assistance of the boy who had fallen, and he found him lying head downwards between two rocks, with his scalp nearly torn off and his leg broken.